Philippe Pétain
National France |party= Souverainistes (sovereignists) |events= |status= Alive }}Philippe Pétain is a French military officer and the current President of the Military Junta of National France, with his protégé being Charles De Gaulle. History Early Life Pétain's father, Omer-Venant, was a farmer. His great-uncle, a Catholic priest, Father Abbe Lefebvre, had served in Napoleon's Grande Armée and told the young Pétain tales of war and adventure of his campaigns from the peninsulas of Italy to the Alps in Switzerland. Highly impressed by the tales told by his uncle, his destiny was from then on determined to be in the army. Pétain joined the French Army in 1876 and attended the St Cyr Military Academy in 1887. Between 1878 and 1899, he served in various garrisons with different battalions of the Chasseurs à pied, the elite light infantry of the French Army. Thereafter, he alternated between staff and regimental assignments. Pétain's career progressed slowly, as he rejected the French Army philosophy of the furious infantry assault, arguing instead that "firepower kills". His views were later proved to be correct during the Weltkrieg. He was promoted to captain in 1890 and major in 1900. Unlike many French officers, he served mainly in mainland France, never French Indochina or any of the African colonies, although he participated in the Rif campaign in Morocco. As a colonel, he commanded the 33rd Infantry Regiment at Arras from 1911. In the spring of 1914, he was given command of a brigade. The Weltkrieg Pétain led a brigade at the Battle of Guise, and by the end of August 1914 he was quickly promoted to brigadier-general and given command of the 6th Division in time for the First Battle of the Marne; little over a month later, in October 1914, he was promoted again and became XXXIII Corps commander. After leading his corps in the spring 1915 Artois Offensive, in July 1915 he was given command of the Second Army, which he led in the Champagne Offensive that autumn. He acquired a reputation as one of the more successful commanders on the Western Front. Pétain commanded the Second Army at the start of the Battle of Verdun in February 1916. During the battle, he was promoted to Commander of Army Group Centre. Rather than holding down the same infantry divisions on the Verdun battlefield for months, like the Germans, he rotated them out after only two weeks on the front lines. His decision to organise truck transport to bring a continuous stream of artillery, ammunition and fresh troops into besieged Verdun also played a key role in grinding down the German onslaught to a final halt in July 1916. At the very end of 1916, Nivelle was promoted over Pétain to become the French Commander-in-Chief. In 1918, after a disastrous offensive under General Nivelle, Pétain replaced him to become Commander-in-Chief, with his first task being to quell the widespread mutinies now breaking out amongst the French army, something he proved very capable at. He was then responsible for an important change of strategy in the French Army that discarded great offensives as a monumental waste of manpower and money and decided to focus on defence, leading to the stop of French offensives. By 1919 France was in full retreat. Paris was under siege while German, Austrian and Bulgarian armies raced southwards down the country at a speed which seemed incredible next to the pace of trench warfare that had dominated the prior years of the war. Pétain's defensive strategy had bought France some time, but with the surrender of Italy, France was now being invaded from the south. Marseilles fell in late September, but by then it was clear that France too was doomed. Thus on the 4th of October, with Paris only weeks away from surrender, the French government likewise chose to surrender to the Germans, this decision was hastened by the support of an armistice amongst the military with Pétain himself strongly supporting the demands for an armistice. Thus, on 11 November 1919, representatives of the two sides met in Copenhagen to sign a ceasefire. discussing general relations between National France and Mittelafrika]] The French Revolution Following the CGT call for a General Strike, and the violent revolution which established the Commune of France, the exiled Pétain now found himself in North Africa. With the decision to rebuild the state from the ground up, Pétain and much of the old guard military led to the Military seizing power under the leadership of Ferdinand Foch. Upon his death, power would later pass to Pétain with the help of his protégé, Admiral François Darlan. See also *Socialist Republic of Italy *Italian Republic Category:People Category:Europeans